Paleoclimate: Evidence from the Past
📋 What it is
Ice cores, tree rings and rock layers record Earth’s ancient climate, letting us compare past and present.
🗣️ Coach says
How do we know past climates? Nature keeps records: ice cores trap ancient air bubbles (measuring old CO₂), tree rings show good and bad growing years, and rock and coral layers store clues. These "proxies" let scientists compare today’s changes to the deep past — and today’s CO₂ rise stands out.
🧠 Memory hook
Ice cores, tree rings, rock layers = nature’s climate diary. They let us compare now vs the deep past.
😂 Giggle
Why did the carbon footprint try to get smaller?
It realized it was leaving too big of an impression!
😲 Whoa!
Scientists have drilled ice cores holding air bubbles over 800,000 years old — literally breathing in samples of Earth’s ancient atmosphere.
✅ Quick check: How can ice cores tell us about the climate of the distant past?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
They trap tiny bubbles of ancient air, so scientists can measure the CO₂ and conditions from long ago.
Ice cores preserve samples of past atmospheres.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Count the rings on a cut log or stump — each ring is one year of that tree’s climate record.